Sack Iain Duncan-Smith

Because Iain Duncan-Smith is the best example of what is worst in the Tory party: An ideology of selfishness, a lack of empathy, intransigent and dogmatic ... I could go on but I reckon you have the idea.

His claim to be able to live on £53 a week like those on reduced JSA was bad enough. Then he popped up again (bad pennies invariably do) to say that "Around 1 million people have been stuck on a working-age benefit for at least three out of the past four years, despite being judged capable of preparing or looking for work." He got rebuked for that by the Office of National Statistics because his claim simply isn't true.

Now the BBC has had a rollicking from Iain Duncan Smith for using Labour’s term “bedroom tax” for the housing benefit shake-up, saying "“The BBC has a duty to inform the public. We believe that the BBC is failing in this duty and confusing members of the public over whether they might be ‘taxed’.” He points out that the dictionary defines tax as a “compulsory contribution to state revenue taken from workers’ pay or business profits — or added to the cost of goods and services”.

While Mr. Duncan-Smith was concentrating on the semantics of those on benefits having to pay on average £1,000 a year simply because they have a spare bedroom, a grandmother who was hit by £20-a-week charge for her spare bedroom committed suicide after leaving note saying the Government was to blame. Stephanie Bottrill could not afford to stay in her home of 18 years but her local council could not find suitable alternative for her, leaving her 'trapped'. In a cloud of depression and despair she died by throwing herself in front of a speeding lorry on the motorway after writing a note blaming the Government for her plight.

Mr. Duncan Smith is, by his callous attitude, single-handedly mobilising those of left of centre politics to gather in protest at this blatantly indiscriminate and unfair punishment of vulnerable individuals who just happen to have a spare bedroom. The fact is that the availability of 1 and 2 bedroom accommodation units has been exhausted by the introduction of the Housing Benefit cap. It is this that has lead to the sad and untimely death of Stephanie Bottrill at 53 years of age.

Enough is enough. Either Duncan-Smith goes or your hapless government will be buried in the landslide of the 2015 election. Sack him today!

Letter to

Prime MinisterThe Rt. Hon. David Cameron MP

Sack Iain Duncan-Smith and replace him with someone with more empathy for the poorest in our country. If you fail to do this your hapless government will be buried in the landslide of the election in 2015.